HER
AMISH SUITOR’S SECRET by Carrie Lighte(on-sale May 19, 2020):Sometimes
the truth comes at a cost.Can she forgive himwhen she learns his true identity?Posing
as an Amish groundskeeper at Rose Allgyer’s lakeside cabin retreat, Englischer
Caleb Miller is determined to clear his brother’s name of theft. But as he’s
drawn to Rose’s good nature, the burden of his ruse gets heavier—especially
after learning Rose was deceived by her ex-fiancé. Still guarded, will Rose
trust Caleb with her heart when she discovers he isn’t who he claims to be?
Purchase links:
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IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781335488176
Excerpt, HER AMISH
SUITOR’S SECRET by Carrie Lighte (Love Inspired)
“Isn’t
it quiet where you live in Wisconsin?”
“It’s
not this quiet. This peaceful. There’s something about being here, where
sometimes the loudest sound I hear is water lapping the shore… It makes me feel
so calm. I feel like that when I’m working in the fields, too. Probably because
when I was young I used to es-cape to the garden when—”
Rose
stopped paddling, eager to hear the rest of his sentence. He hardly ever talked
about his youth. “When what?” she pressed, looking over her shoulder to get a
glimpse of his face.
Over
the past couple of weeks while chatting with Rose, Caleb had occasionally
forgotten to guard his Englisch identity, but until now, he’d always guarded
his emotions, especially those concerning his upbringing. He hadn’t meant to
disclose his feelings tonight—he hadn’t even intended to spend any time alone
with Rose. But opening up to her seemed to happen naturally, in spite of
yesterday’s resolution to put distance between himself and the Amish of
Serenity Ridge. So he continued, “My mamm and daed bickered a lot and it helped
to go outdoors to get away from them. When I was gardening, I forgot about
their troubles. Tending to Gott’s creation made me feel… Well, it made me feel
tranquil.” Kind of like how I feel right now.
Caleb
had also stopped paddling and mild waves gently rocked the canoe. In the
moonlight, he could see Rose’s eyebrows were furrowed and she appeared to be
contemplating what he’d just said. After a quiet spell, she questioned, “Does
gardening still bring you a sense of tranquility?”
“Jah,
it does.” Caleb’s mouth went dry as he anticipated her next question: she was
going to ask why he’d become a teacher instead of a farmer, and he couldn’t
drum up a credible reply.
Instead,
she gave him a fetching smile and, before twisting forward in her seat again,
she added, “I’m glad. For our sake, as well as for yours.”
Caleb
let his breath out slowly. He dipped his paddle into the water and Rose did,
too. As they journeyed he thought about how amazing it felt to confide in her.
Maybe he wasn’t being honest about the facts of his life, but tonight he’d been
honest about his emotions. And even though Rose’s back was to him as she sat in
the bow, there was something so…not necessarily romantic, but so personal about
being with her that he’d never felt with his friends or any of the women he’d
ever dated. Rose seems to enjoy spending time with me, too, Caleb rationalized.
So what’s the harm in continuing to develop friendships here as long as no one
finds out I’m Englisch?
When
they pulled onto the shore near the trailhead by Paradise Point, Caleb hopped
out and dragged the canoe several feet up the embankment so Rose wouldn’t get
her shoes wet, and then they headed for the forested path. It was much darker
beneath the trees than on the open water, so Rose shone the flashlight on the
ground in front of her. Caleb initially tried to follow in her foot-steps but
after tripping twice, he decided to accompany her side by side on the narrow
path in order to get the benefit of the light.
“I
think we should talk so we don’t startle any animals,” Rose announced loudly.
“Or we should sing.”
“My
singing would frighten the animals,” Caleb jested.
“In
that case, you should have serenaded the skunks on the porch—maybe they would
have left.”
“Or
they would have sprayed me,” Caleb said. “This probably isn’t the right time to
ask, but are there many other kinds of animals in these woods?”
“Serenity
Ridge has a family of moose that sometimes make their
presence known. The other night when I was coming back from the dining hall, I
thought I heard one in the bushes behind me, but then it went quiet.”
Caleb’s
ears perked up. “What night was that?”
“I
think it was last Monday or Tuesday, but don’t worry, it turned out to be a
deer—I saw its tracks on the path. That’s the thing about animals and buwe—they
always leave tracks. When my breider were young, my mamm always knew when
they’d been exploring down by the swamp instead of doing their chores because
of what her kitchen floor looked like. You’d think it would occur to them to
take off their shoes before they came inside, but it never did,” Rose said,
giggling.
For
the rest of their hike Caleb asked questions about her siblings and their
families, and he told her a couple anecdotes about Ryan, too. Finally the trees
thinned out and Rose announced they were nearing the summit. Caleb was about to
remark he wished they’d brought re-freshments when he heard a noise in the
distance, almost a metallic sound, or like something scraping against a rock.
He came to a halt and tugged Rose’s arm to make her stop, too. With his chin
nearly resting on her shoul-der, he whispered into her ear, “What was that?”
“I
didn’t hear anything,” she whispered back, and flashed the light into the woods
on one side of the path and then the other. Caleb didn’t see anything unusual.
He didn’t hear anything unusual, either, other than the thundering of his
pulse, which was probably more from standing so close to Rose than from being
alarmed. Half a minute passed and nothing stirred in the woods.
He
must have imagined it, Caleb thought, merely two seconds before an earsplitting
shot reverberated through the night air.
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About Carrie Lighte:
Carrie Lighte enjoys traveling to Amish communities across the United States and she hopes to visit a few in Canada soon, too. When she isn't writing, reading or researching, she likes to hike, kayak and spend time at the beach.
Author social links:
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Website: https://www.carrielighte.com/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarrieLighte
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